Systematic data concerning sexual, marital and social experience were obtained by structured interviews with males taking part in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. In the course of the year, subjects aged 79 and younger at interview with a positive diagnosis of coronary heart disease (CHD) prior to July 1, 1979, were closely matched on age at interview to subjects negative for CHD. In over one hundred comparisons between CHD subjects and their controls, a remarkable correspondence between them was found in regard to wide range of personal and experiential attributes pertaining to marriage and sexual activity. In sum, present findings clearly suggest that these phenomena play no role in the etiology of CHD.